The next time an installer comes to set up a Z-Wave IoT device in your home, it might take a lot less time.Sigma Designs, the company that makes most chips for Z-Wave wireless networks, is introducing a system at the CES trade show that lets service providers configure IoT devices before they’re delivered. That leaves less for a technician to do, and potentially to mess up, according to Sigma.The system, called Z-Wave Smart Start, could make life easier for a lot of people getting started with smart-home technology. It’s still hard to set up most IoT products, so most don’t try to do it themselves. About 80 percent of home IoT gear is purchased through service providers rather than from shops or online stores, said Raoul Wijgergangs, vice president of Z-Wave for Sigma Designs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’m sitting in my very nice hotel room here in Las Vegas, preparing for my first day of meetings at International CES 2017 (or whatever they’d like us to call it these days, it’s hard to remember). We’ve already seen companies producing a bunch of new product announcements - be sure to check out our slideshow of the “Hottest products at CES 2017”In terms of overall themes, I’m expecting to see just about everything - smart home and IoT will be big again, with the overall question about interoperability between all of the new “things” in your home. Wireless mesh in the home is expected to continue to gain momentum (Linksys just entered the market with its Velop system). Connected cars, AR and VR of course will be top of mind for almost everyone as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge browsers may be near the bottom of their unprecedented crash in user share, measurements published Sunday show.Analytics vendor Net Applications reported that the user share of IE and Edge -- an estimate of the proportion of the world's personal computer owners who ran those browsers -- dropped by seven-tenths of a percentage point in December, falling to a combined 26.2%.That seven-tenths of a point decline was notable because it was less than half that of the browsers' average monthly reductions over the last 12, six and three months, which were 1.9, 1.8 and 1.5 points, respectively. The slowly-shrinking averages over the three different spans supported the idea that IE and Edge may be reaching rock bottom.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Facebook and Google closed out 2016 with a near duopoly in popular mobile applications. Both companies' mobile apps expanded their dominance of the 10 most popular mobile apps in the United States by significant margins, according to research from Nielsen. The media measurement firm calculated the average unique audiences for apps between January 2016 and October 2016 and provided year-over-year percentage changes for the 12-month period that ended in October. A Facebook and Google world ...
Facebook makes the two most popular mobile apps in the United States, Facebook and Facebook Messenger, as well as Instagram, the second-fastest growing app and the No. 8 most popular app, according to Nielsen. Facebook's average unique audience on mobile during the period grew 14 percent year-over-year to 146 million users. Facebook Messenger's audience grew 28 percent from the previous year to 129.7 million users. And Instagram jumped 36 percent from 2015 to 74.7 million users, Nielsen says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Productivity trackers in the workplace are another result of big data. Employers can gain insights into how employees are using their time and offer ways to objectively evaluate performance. However, productivity tracking brings up questions of employee privacy, what metrics to track and how much employers should monitor.Alice Chin, founder and CEO of Your Other Half, a human resources and operations outsourcing firm that helps businesses fine tune productivity, says there are certainly benefits as long as these considerations are handled correctly. In her own business, productivity tracking has helped fine-tune efficiencies, and she's helped numerous clients implement similar systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Like superheroes, deep learning packages usually have origin stories. Yangqing Jia created the Caffe project while earning his doctorate at U.C. Berkeley. The project continues as open source under the auspices of the Berkeley Vision and Learning Center (BVLC), with community contributions. The BVLC is now part of the broader Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab. Similarly, the scope of Caffe has been expanded beyond vision to include nonvisual deep learning problems, although the published models for Caffe are still overwhelmingly related to images and video.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is scheduled to announce Wednesday a "prize competition" for a tool that can be used against security vulnerabilities in internet of things systems.The prize pot is up to $25,000, with $3,000 available for each honorable mention. The winners will be announced in July. The announcement is scheduled to be published Wednesday in the Federal Register.The tool, at a minimum, will "help protect consumers from security vulnerabilities caused by out-of-date software," said the FTC.The government's call for help cites the use of internet-enabled cameras as a platform for a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack last October. Weak default passwords were blamed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What the iPhone might have been: 16 prototypes that led to the original iPhoneImage by AppleTen years ago, Apple completely and forever changed the way we interact with technology when Steve Jobs introduced the original iPhone. Though the original iPhone, by today’s standards, is far from impressive, the iPhone when launched was nothing short of groundbreaking. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I think it's time to talk in depth about some of the most important features of PowerShell: Providers and modules. (Snap-ins have also been important, but they are being gradually phased out.) These are really the core of the universe when it comes to all of the commands available for use within PowerShell, so I want to teach you what they are, how they work and how to use them in your daily activities. Let's dive in!Introducing modules and snap-insTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
As consumers watch another wave of home IoT devices emerge from CES this week, they’ll still be waiting for one technology that can make all those products work together.The ZigBee Alliance, a group of more than 400 companies that make things with the ZigBee wireless protocol, made a bid to provide that unifying technology right before the annual consumer electronics gathering kicks off.On Tuesday, ZigBee announced Dotdot, which it calls a universal language for IoT. Even though ZigBee is best known as an open wireless communications protocol used in many home IoT products, Dotdot is intended for use with any wireless technology. It defines things like how devices tell each other what they are and what they can do, which is important for making different objects around a home do things together.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Canon's MG6821 all-in-one printer, scanner and copier features Airprint for convenient printing from your mobile device, and can print to Google Cloud as well. It features fast print speeds, sharp text, vivid colors, and can print 2-sided. It averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 500 customers on Amazon, where its list price has been reduced to just $49. If you're due for a new, more modern printer, see this deal on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Unparalleled improvements will come to smartphones with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835, a tiny chip with powerhouse features. Super-thin handsets will be as fast as PCs, LTE data transfers could be faster than a wired internet connection, and virtual reality will be in the palm of your hand. Top handsets like Samsung's Galaxy S8 are likely to end up using the new eight-core Snapdragon 835 chip. Here are seven improvements coming to handsets.Smartphones will be thinnerPhones are already thin, but will get even thinner with the Snapdragon 835. The chip -- which is smaller than a U.S. penny -- is 35 percent smaller than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 820, which powers the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. If smartphone sizes remain the same, device makers could pack in larger batteries and battery life. The chip will also occupy less circuit board space, allowing device makers to add more memory or other components.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Take your pick: whether you choose an Android smartphone, Windows 10 laptop or hybrid PC device, you'll be able to run Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835.
That sums up the versatility of the new chip: designed primarily for Android smartphones, it has the horsepower to run a PC. In fact, the Snapdragon 835 will bring never-before-seen features to Windows PCs.
The chip, based on ARM architecture, will first arrive in smartphones later this quarter, with a good chance of appearing in new handsets from Samsung, HTC and LG.
It will also appear in PCs running Windows 10 later this year. Microsoft and Qualcomm in December announced they were collaborating to bring the Snapdragon 835 to "cellular PCs," which are thin-and-light Windows 10 laptops with smartphone-like, always-on connectivity to the internet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft’s latest version of its anti-malware tool, Windows Defender, is a frustrating product to evaluate. Yes, it is perhaps the best antivirus tool to come from Microsoft, with a series of noteworthy improvements. Yes, it provides good enough protection for your family’s PCs. And yes, it could be your PC’s sole antivirus utility, if you are willing to accept its limitations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
First: I’m not a lawyer. Net neutrality—the principle that no online traffic has priority over other traffic, not even for pay—might go away. If it does, big money will be behind its demise. The end of network neutrality will create many lasting problems, including these specific issues: 1. The lawyers win
Every conceivable new theory about how one organization should have priority will ensue, and the courts will be clogged deciding the outcome. Today, the principle is simple: all traffic gets the same priority, and multimedia can have isochronous priority, but it’s not guaranteed. + Also on Network World: How Trump will attack the FCC's net neutrality rules +
Without net neutrality, we will enter an era where ISPs, telcos, carriers and interconnects will all demand that THEIR traffic has priority, and yours does not—unless you pay. Let the litigation begin, and the courts glow in the dark in an attempt to sort out what theories of law now hold sway. Insert wallet, here. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Happy new year cybersecurity community! Hope you are well rested, it’s bound to be an eventful year ahead.Way back when at the end of November 2016, I posted a blog about an evolutionary trend I see happening around cybersecurity analytics and operations technology. Historically, large enterprises have relied on SIEM products to anchor their SOCs. This will continue but I see SIEM becoming part of a more global cybersecurity software architecture called SOAPA (i.e. security operations and analytics platform architecture). SOAPA uses middleware (i.e. message queueing, transaction processing, etc.), APIs, and industry standards like CybOX, STIX, and TAXII to connect disparate cybersecurity analytics and operations tools and data sources like EDR, network security analytics, UBA/machine learning analytics systems, vulnerability scanners, security asset management, anti-malware sandboxes/cloud services, incident response platforms, and threat intelligence into a cohesive software architecture. In this way, disparate analytics tools can be used collectively to gain more context out of the data while accelerating processes and cybersecurity operations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Do you have the nasty habit of knocking your laptop around? Meet Acer's tough-as-nails Chromebook 11 N7, designed to withstand a serious beating.The Chromebook 11 N7 has an 11.6-inch screen and is fortified with layers of protection to withstand drops. Acer has been so meticulous in ruggedizing the laptop that it's even difficult to remove key caps from the keyboard -- whether by accident or on purpose.Why did Acer construct such a Chromebook? It's targeted at educational institutions that issue laptops to students, who may be clumsy with PCs. The Chromebook 11 N7 is certainly more durable than the iPad, which has been given to students and can crack easily if mishandled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Conventional bicycles are undergoing a radical technological makeover that could change the way people ride and protect their bikes.
LeEco isn't reinventing the wheel with its new Smart Road and Smart Mountain bikes, but infusing them with dazzling technology derived from smartphones and self-driving cars. The bicycles have navigation, fitness and communication features, and even technology to track a stolen bike.
These new features are more than just bells and whistles -- they could be a blueprint of how future bikes could look. Transportation is the next big technology frontier, and LeEco's bikes are cool and smart.
The LeEco smart bikes will be available in the U.S. in the second quarter. A company spokeswoman said prices will be announced at a later date.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazingly thin Windows 10 laptops and tablets will soon become available with Intel's new Kaby Lake chips, which were announced at CES. These chips, called 7th Generation Core, will extend laptop battery life to new highs, and bring new capabilities like 4K video. You'll also enjoy VR by connecting headsets to Kaby Lake laptops or tablets. There's a lot more to Kaby Lake, and here's what you can expect from PCs:
Thinner and lighter laptops
Laptops and tablets with Kaby Lake are so thin and light that their weight in a backpack is not noticeable, unless it's a fully loaded gaming PC. Samsung's new 13.3-inch Notebook 9 weighs an amazing 816 grams, but offers only seven hours of battery life. Low-power Kaby Lake chips will also be in laptops and 2-in-1 devices from Lenovo, HP, Acer and Dell that weigh 1 to 1.5 kilograms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Merging gaming PCs into low-end brands failed for PC makers like HP, but Dell is giving it a shot.
Dell is moving budget gaming PCs into the consumer Inspiron brand as it positions the premium Alienware PCs for a leap into the 4K and virtual reality era.
At CES, Dell introduced new Inspiron 7000 gaming laptops, which have the look and feel of Alienware PCs. With a starting price of US$799, the Inspiron 7000 models aren't as feature-packed as the new Alienware 13, 15, and 17 laptops, which were also announced at the show and will ship this month.
The Inspiron 7000 models -- which comes with 14- or 15.6-inch screens -- have processing and graphics punch with high-end Intel Core i7 H-series Kaby Lake CPUs and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPUs. It's the first Inspiron gaming laptop and the fastest in that brand.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here